Marine Resources RFF discussion paper 02-26 and Ch. 11 Kahn.

Marine ResourcesRFF discussion paper 02-26 and Ch. 11 Kahn

Background (USA)

• U.S. has about 95,000 miles of coastline and more than 3.4 million square miles of ocean in its domain (NOAA, 1998).

• habitats and the resources they support provide the public with a valuable and diverse set of goods and services

• seafood, recreational enjoyment, carbon sequestration, storm protection, and opportunities for pharmaceutical discoveries

Economic Impact

• commercial fisheries alone add approximately $27 billion per year to U.S. gross domestic product (NOAA 2000).

• Coastal environment also supports many tourism and recreation activities that contribute, in total, about $595 billion annually to gross domestic product, making it the second largest contributor (NOAA

• 1999).

Over-fishing

• marine resources are overexploited and face external environmental threats. In the United States, federal regulators report that 56 of 162 major fish stocks are overfished.

• Max. Sustainable Yield p.382

External Environmental Threats

• between 1986 and 1997, the United States experienced a net loss of 10,400 acres of estuarine and marine wetlands (Dahl 2000).

• runoff from urban streets, lawns, and agricultural areas, arising from greater development on the coast, delivers nutrients and chemicals to coastal estuaries and wetlands

A Potential Solution

• MPA• benefits and costs associated with setting aside

areas of the marine habitat.• benefit-cost framework because it is a

convenient structure to organize and classify potential outcomes, tradeoffs, and the risks associated with these choices (Freeman and Portney 1989).

• does not imply that all potential benefits and costs are easily identified or even quantifiable.

Ecology

• MPAs are found to be effective in protecting critical habitats, as spatial havens for intensely exploited species, as sources of stock for adjacent areas, and as potential buffers against management errors.

• When exploitation is ceased in an area, resident fish populations begin to recover.

• Pp. 394-395

Too many boats chasing too few fish

• Gordon Model and incentives• sense of ownership• race-to-fish• Table 11.2 (p.387) and figure 11.10 (p.389)

Fishery Policy - regulations• Today many fisheries throughout the world

are no longer open-access• current fishery management efforts have, for

the most part, overlooked the role of incentives in shaping behavior and sought rather to focus on effort controls, such as trip limits, seasonal closures, and gear restrictions.

• Unfortunately, these regulations treat the symptoms of the problem and not the fundamental causes.

Fishery Policy – limited entry

• ITQs– allowable catch is capped and the privilege of

harvesting the catch is allocated to individual fishermen through quota shares that are secure and transferable with the objective of maximizing net economic returns.

• Table 11.4 vs. table 11.3

Economic and Social Implicationsof MPAs

• The literature asks under what conditions might the conservation gains attributed to MPAs provide the largest benefit for the smallest cost.

• MPAs are a public investment of marine resources

• Benefits, Costs and User groups*

• The effectiveness of MPAs in meeting their management objectives will be influenced by how fishermen respond to them and the presence of external threats, such as nutrient pollution and meteorological disturbances

• MPAs are not protected from external threats, like nutrient pollution, coastal erosion, diversion of freshwater, and broad environmental shocks, such as those caused by El Nino.

• lower the value of an MPA as a hedge.

Political Economy

• Efficiency• Moral / Ethical• Cultural• Equity and Fairness

TMS – total management strategy• MPA and ITQ

• One possible way to increase the probability of MPAs succeeding in fishery enhancement is to couple them with other complementary management tools that address the causes of overfishing, such as individual transferable quotas

• in addition to fishery enhancement, MPAs will often provide important ancillary benefits. – protecting coral reefs that store carbon and provide unique recreation

opportunities, such as scuba diving or underwater photography, will yield benefits independent of fishery enhancement.

– individuals who may never visit the site but benefit from knowing that rare habitats exist and endangered species are protected might value MPAs.

– Although difficult to measure, such non-extractive values may exceed the value of foregone fishing opportunities. But, until more data are collected and research is done on the magnitude of such values, weighing them against easier-to-quantify fishing impacts is difficult.

Final Thoughts

• A robust stakeholder process is likely to lead to better decisions concerning MPAs.

– http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12253181

– http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080918170357.htm

– http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=69